Right-clicking on the Unity desktop does nothing - ideas?

Question

I was reading today the latest Canonical design blog post where I was kind of surprised that one should be able to right click on the desktop to change the wallpaper. I am running the most updated version of natty and have the latest unity package installed (3.8.10) but right clicking on the desktop brings nothing on my machine. On the other hand, when I right click on any launcher icon I do get a quick list, so I know it's not a problem with my mouse or something. Is this a known bug?

I tried to kill Nautilus as Nathan suggested using Alt+F2 and then killall nautilus. Just to be sure, I then opened a terminal window and typed the same command again. Got the response nautilus: no process found (I figured that my first try to kill nautilus worked then. Just to be on the safe side, I clicked the "Home" icon on my launcher to start Nautilus, and then killed it again (same command). Still nothing happened.

Following some of the comments below, I should specify that I do have ubuntu-desktop installed (and updated version 1.220) and nautilus is indeed installed (Version: 1:2.32.2.1-0ubuntu13). (Used to have nautilus from the elementary PPA, but removed it following the comments below - still no luck).

Solution 1

It is highly unlikely the N.E. is a real problem.

Ensure that:

/apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop (run gconf-editor) Is set to true. If it is, also ensure that nautilus is set to launch on login.

• How do I use the gconf editor?

Solution 2

The desktop is actually provided by Nautilus, just like it was in previous versions of Ubuntu. If you press Alt+F2 and type killall nautilus without the quotes and then press Enter, this will stop (and automatically restart) Nautilus.

What happens when you right-click on your desktop then?

Comments

[Admin]

Do you have nautilus managing your desktop? Or have you disabled that option?

[Admin]

Roland, thanks for the quick reply. How do I know if I have nautilus managing my desktop? As I was unaware of this option, I guess I never changed that. Following yours and Nathan response below, I should mention that I am using nautilus-elementary. Can this be the culprit?

[Admin]

I removed my installed version of nautilus (from the elementary PPA) and reinstalled nautilus (Version: 1:2.32.2.1-0ubuntu13). Logged out and back in, and still - right clicking has no effect whatsoever

[S B]

Nathan, thanks for the quick response. I tried what you suggested and nothing happened - did not get any feedback from the system, and right clicking the desktop still did not work. Just to be sure, I then opened a terminal window and typed the same command again. Got the response nautilus: no process found (I figured that my first try to kill nautilus worked then. Just to be on the safe side, I clicked the "Home" icon on my launcher to start Nautilus, and then killed it again (same command). Still nothing happened. One last thing that may be important. I am using nautilus-elemenatary

[Jorge Castro]

@SB It is likely nautilus is not installed, ensure that the ubuntu-desktop package is installed, that should install everything you're supposed to have.

[Nathan Haines]

@SB You're quite welcome! I should've mentioned that, too. You can run nautilus from Alt-F2 as well, although I recommend opening a Terminal and running it from there. 'nautilus &' should work. Running nautilus from the launcher runs it in windowed mode. And as Jorge said, installing the ubuntu-desktop package could help. You can do that in a Terminal with 'sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop'

[S B]

@Jorge, @Nathan, thanks for looking into this. I do have ubuntu-desktop installed (and updated version 1.220) and nautilus is indeed installed (1:2.32.2.2-0ubuntu3~ppa170 - from the elementary PPA). So, let me ask again, can this be the probable cause?

[Jorge Castro]

@SB Add the version information to your question. I'm guessing N-E is the cause but someone with more expertise will at least have the information up front.

[S B]

@Jorge - done. Thanks for guiding a noob on how to use this site. I am quite a freak about updating information to have it accessible, so I appreciate the guidance on how to distribute the information better so it is more accessible to others.

[Nathan Haines]

@SB You're doing great. :) I'm afraid I'm stumped at the moment. I may have missed it, but what happens when you run 'nautilus' in a terminal window on its own?

[S B]

@Roland, you solved it for me! Thanks!! I also realized why was this turned off on my machine. I am using Ubuntu Tweak which gives you an option to have a desktop "without icons". I guess this option turns off the "show desktop" setting of nautilus. Thanks again! Heading back to reinstall nautilus from the elementary PPA... :-)

[Jason Southwell]

@SB: I figured you had used Ubuntu-Tweak, but I didn't want to mention it if you did not have it.

[S B]

posted a bug report on the Ubuntu Tweak launchpad page.

[Jason Southwell]

@SB: this is not a bug in ubunu-tweak, but in Nautilus.

[S B]

@Roland, actually, I thought this wasn't actually a bug, but a desired behavior. The bug report which I posted against Ubuntu Tweak is not of some malfunctioning code, but just a suggestion that when a user unchecks the relevant chackbox he is notified that his desktop will no longer be clickable. See bug report for details of what I suggested. Why do you see it as a bug with Nautilus? Maybe Nautilus should differentiate between not showing icons, and making the desktop unclickable?

[Jason Southwell]

@SB: Your last question hits the nail on the head.

[James]

@Roland: Show Desktop does not appear in /apps/nautilus/preferences/ on my 11.10 install, but selecting "Show Desktop Icons" in Ubuntu Tweak reapplied the feature allowing Right clicking the desktop to change wallpaper.